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Change of Heart (episode)
On a mission to recover a Federation informant on the Dominion world of Soukara, Dax is injured and Worf must choose between completing the mission or saving his wife. Meanwhile, O'Brien enlists Bashir's help to defeat Quark in a game of Tongo. Summary On Deep Space 9, tongo has recently been going well for Quark. He has won two hundred and six straight games in the last month. Even Dax can't keep up with him and she causes Worf to lose a bet against Miles O'Brien, although the Klingon claims that he would rather lose betting on his wife than win betting on someone else. In the middle of the following night, Kira calls for Worf and Dax regarding an emergency transmission from a Cardassian Starfleet operative. Since most of the runabouts and the are off on exercises with the Ninth Fleet, the couple must embark on a trip into the Badlands (where they will be able to contact the Cardassian) aboard the . On their way to the Badlands, the two discuss plans about their honeymoon. Worf easily concedes to Casperia Prime. After that, the conversation orients itself around a discussion about Worf's sense of humor and various habits and tolerance to change of the two of them – nothing very deep, but there's a sense of the bond that has developed between the two of them. Back on the station, Julian Bashir arrives at O'Brien's quarters for another of their holosuite adventures, but the chief has set his mind to a new challenge: to end Quark's tongo streak. When he realizes that he won't be able to change O'Brien's mind, the doctor accepts helping his friend. Soon after they arrive at the coordinates in the Badlands, Worf and Dax receive a transmission from the Cardassian operative, Lasaran. The spy informs them that he is not secure any more and wants out immediately and that he has information on every single Founder in the Alpha Quadrant, as well as details on where they are and what they're doing. He sends them a rendezvous point near a Dominion base on Soukara. It seems like one of his last chances to get out and the trip is a one way, effectively forcing Worf and Dax into an urgent secret mission. The two are then on to a trip in Soukara's jungle, thanks to transporter scramblers, to recover the informant. Back on the station, the doctor and O'Brien are finally ready to challenge Quark. Even though the Ferengis are reluctant to admit Humans to their table at first, they eventually accept. Eventually, there is only Bashir and Quark left at the tongo table, the bartender congratulating the doctor on his fast learning. Nevertheless, Quark has another card in his sleeve and soon begins a conversation about Bashir's past feelings for Dax and is able to distract the doctor long enough to drag him into a ruining confrontation against what finally reveals to be a total monopoly. On Soukara, Dax and Worf are slowly progressing, but are eventually taken almost by surprise by a patrol of three Jem'Hadar. They are able to kill all three Jem'Hadar, but Jadzia is hurt by a disruptor burst that left an anti-coagulant in her system. In the following course, Jadzia becomes more and more weak and Worf is eventually forced to leave her behind to continue the mission. Even if their officer training is able to make them accept the fact that another patrol could find Dax before Worf is back, the Klingon eventually finds himself totally unable to continue his mission while knowing his par'Mach'kai is in danger. He finally decides to pull back. Back on Deep Space 9, Dax gets the health care she needs. However, things do not go as well for her husband: since his actions lead to Lasaran's death. Captain Sisko demands an explanation, and Worf tells him that as he went further and further into the jungle, he knew that he there was no way he could leave his wife behind, even though the intelligence that Starfleet has lost could have saved millions of lives. Captain Sisko tells Worf that the secrecy of the operation and Starfleet's desire to keep their intelligence activities under wraps will save him the court martial, but there will be a permanent note in his service record. As a result, Worf will almost certainly never be offered a command of his own after the incident. Sisko also issues orders that Worf and Dax are to be never sent on a mission alone again. However, off the record the Captain tells Worf that as a man who once had a wife, that if it had been Jennifer lying there in the jungle, he would have made the same choice. Worf visits the recovering Dax in her hospital bed and tells her that he didn't complete the mission. Dax is sorry that he hurt his career because of her but Worf tells his wife that he isn't sorry as she is what matters, above his career and everything else and that if the situation arose again he would do exactly the same again. The two then reaffirm their love for each other. Memorable quotes "Esh'ta par'Mach'kai!!" : - Worf cheering Jadzia's tongo hand "I didn't expect you to surrender so quickly." "Surrender?!" "Bad word." "Very bad." : - Dax and Worf "Worf, you're practically easygoing. What's next? A sense of humor?" "I have a sense of humor! On the ''Enterprise I was considered to be quite amusing." "''That must have been one dull ship." "That is a joke. I get it... it is not ''funny, but I get it." : - '''Dax' and Worf "A Klingon. Why do they have to send a Klingon?" "I'm a Trill, does that make you feel any better?" "Are you trying to be funny?" "Not at all, he's the funny one." : - Lasaran and Dax "Think of it as a challenge." "That's your obsession, Miles, not mine." "Do it for the latinum." "Nice try." "Do it for the satisfaction of the look on Quark's face when he's beaten at a game of tongo by a lowly hew-mon." "Deal the cards." : - O'Brien and Bashir "How are you enjoying your honeymoon? Are you suffering enough?" "Almost." "Anything I can get for you?" "More pain, less cold. ''" : - '''Dax' and Worf "Genetically enhanced or not, you're only hew-mon." : - O'Brien to Bashir after his loss to Quark "...I had to go back... and it did not matter what Starfleet thought or what the consequences were. She was my wife and I could not leave her." "As your captain, it is my duty to inform you that you made the wrong choice. I don't think Starfleet will file any formal charges -- even a secret court-martial would run the risk of revealing too much about their intelligence operations. But this ''will go in to your service record... and to be completely honest, you probably won't be offered a command on your own after this." "''I understand." "I have also issued new orders -- you and Jadzia are not to be assigned to a mission on your own ''ever again... and one last thing: as a man who had a wife... if Jennifer had been lying in that clearing... I wouldn't have left her either." : - '''Worf' and Sisko Background information * The basic story of this episode, the idea of two officers journeying into a jungle behind enemy lines, was inspired by the 1968 and movie , which also starred George Takei. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * The B-story for this episode originally involved Rom, Nog and Prinadora. The plot involved Prinadora arriving on the station and claiming that she has come to reconcile with Rom and get to know Nog, but it turns out she's actually there to hood-wink Rom all over again. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) *Max Grodénchik, Aron Eisenberg, Chase Masterson and Lolita Fatjo have performed the unfilmed B-plot at conventions. http://www.treknation.com/articles/a_weekend_with_the_stars_part_one.shtml * This episode's narrative structure is unique in Deep Space Nine insofar as the B-story (Bashir and O'Brien attempting to defeat Quark at tongo) ends just after the halfway point of the episode, and then the A-story takes over completely. Usually, A and B stories run concurrently for an entire episode. The reason writer Ronald D. Moore wrote the show this way was because he had been deeply unsatisfied with the results the last time he mixed a dark and serious A-story with a light-weight and inconsequential B-story; in the third season episode . According to Moore, "After Jadzia gets hurt, it gets so intense that we didn't want to break out and be cutting back." In , Moore had mixed an A-story involving the slow death of Vedek Bareil, with a B-story involving Jake and Nog on a disastrous double-date, and after the episode was completed, he came to feel that the farcical B-story really hurt the serious A-story. As such, he was determined not to make the same mistake again, so he purposely kept the B-story short and non-intrusive. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * Ira Steven Behr says of this episode, "This was the episode that was going to show that the love Worf has for Dax goes beyond his Klingon upbringing, and even beyond his Starfleet training. That was a bold step to take with a character who had previously been defined by these very two elements." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * After reading the script for this episode, Terry Farrell requested that Dax be killed now if she was going to be killed at all. At the time of production, she had already decided to leave the show following the end of season 6, as contract talks had failed to bring about a new contract for season 7, and she felt that having Worf complete the mission and leave Dax to die would create a very interesting character arc for him in the final season. According to Farrell, "I knew I wasn't coming back for the seventh season, so it was really written well, and it was the controversy of whether Worf should come back and save my life and not complete the mission, or complete the mission. But he decides to save his wife's life, and I remember thinking, 'Ah, this would be the perfect one to just end it'. I had asked not to be killed, but if you need to kill me because that's what you need to do, that would have been the perfect episode to do it because it would have been so much more for Worf's character to play in the long run, because he would have let his wife die, but completed the mission. Oh my God, what an awful thing to live with." (Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax, DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) Jadzia was ultimately killed in the sixth season finale by a Pah-wraith-possessed Gul Dukat. * As with such incidents as Worf's decision to kill Kurn in , Kira's refusal to apologize to Silaran Prin in and Odo's decision to allow an entire society disappear in , the writers saw this as another chance to take a character on an unexpectedly dark journey which would surprise the viewers. According to Ronald D. Moore, "I felt very strongly that we shouldn't let Worf off the hook when he's faced with a tough choice. So often in a story like this a character will get to have it both ways – his wife lives ''and he accomplishes the mission. They always cheat it somehow. But Worf was just not going to let Jadzia die out there in the jungle, so we decided to let him fail, to let that guy die and to let Worf take that hit. It represented a more interesting choice, and an unexpected decision on the part of the character''." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * The jungle of Soukara was created by the Greens Department on Stage 5 on the Paramount Lot. Because there were so many walking shots, the jungle was built as a large circle so that the actors and crew didn't have to keep stopping and switching sides every time they reached the 'end'. However, during shooting, the general consensus was that the Greens people did too good a job in constructing the oppressive jungle. According to art director Randy McIlvain, "We had designed small platforms to put all these trees on, so that the filmmakers could move the platforms out and get into the jungle area to shoot. But they added more and more plants, until we couldn't move the platforms! The plants and vines were all intertwined." As Steve Oster points out, "It got so difficult that we might as well have been on location." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * This episode reintroduces the notion that Bashir is still madly in love with Dax, something which has its origins in the very first episode of the series, . Bashir's realization here that he still loves her however would finally pay off in the series finale, , albeit with Ezri Dax as opposed to Jadzia Dax. * This episode marks the first appearance of Deep Space 9's newest runabout, the , and the Dominion-held planet of Soukara, which is later referred to in . * When they are in their quarters getting ready for bed, Dax tells Worf that the will be docking at the station. This is the same ship that was at the station during the episode , and aboard which Manuele Atoa serves as a lieutenant. * Casperia Prime is mentioned for the first time in this episode. * Rene Auberjonois (Odo) and Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) do not appear in this episode. Apocrypha * The events of this episode are an important part of the novel ''Resistance'', when Worf rejects Captain Picard's decision to make him the new first officer of the because he feels that he does not deserve the command after his actions here. However, when Picard is briefly re-assimilated by the Borg, Worf nevertheless takes command, successfully destroying the Borg drones on the enemy cube and rescuing Picard, Doctor Crusher simultaneously managing to "infect" the Borg Queen with a "virus" that will prevent the Collective from creating a new one. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 6.8, *As part of the DS9 Season 6 DVD collection Links and references Starring * Avery Brooks as Captain Sisko Also starring * Rene Auberjonois as Odo * Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Commander Worf * Terry Farrell as Lieutenant Commander Dax * Colm Meaney as Chief O'Brien * Armin Shimerman as Quark * Alexander Siddig as Doctor Bashir * Nana Visitor as Major Kira Guest star *Todd Waring as Lasaran Uncredited co-star *Chester E. Tripp III (stunt actor) References Americans; Andor; asteroid; bloodwine; Cardassia Prime; Cardassians; darts; ''Enterprise''-D, USS; Founders; Horvian Cluster; Istanbul; Jem'Hadar; joule; kayaking; latinum; mek'leth; medkit; MI5; O'Brien, Keiko; plasma; Queen of England; Risa; Romulan; Rozhenko, Nikolai; Rozhenko, Sergey; Scotch whiskey; ''Shenandoah'', USS; Jennifer, Sisko; Soukara system; Starfleet Bureau of Information; Starfleet Intelligence; stasis chamber; starbase; ''Sutherland'', USS; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; tongo; Ural Mountains; Vorta; Vulcan's Forge; West Berlin; ''Yeager''-type starship External link * * |next= }} de:Wandel des Herzens es:Change of Heart fr:Change of Heart nl:Change of Heart Category:DS9 episodes